Unshackled Trump: ISIS To Conquer America If Clinton Wins

Trump also asserted Bill Clinton has rigged presidential debates.

According to Donald Trump, the Islamic State is “hoping and praying” Hillary Clinton wins the presidency so that the Mideast terror group can take over the United States. However hard that may be to believe, it’s not out of line with what the Republican presidential nominee’s political surrogates have said in the past.

Speaking Wednesday during a rally in Ocala, Florida, and still reeling from plummeting polls and abandonment from some within the GOP, Trump said ISIS will “take over not only that part of the world, they’ll take over this country, they’ll take over this part of the world. Believe me. They are hoping. They are hoping.”

“And by the way, you know, she likes to say they want me — I will be their worst nightmare,” he added. “I’m gonna be their worst nightmare. Ugh.”

For the record, Trump has yet to reveal his plan to defeat the Islamic State, other than to “bomb the hell out of” it.

He also used Wednesday’s rally to bash Clinton and President Barack Obama, Democrats both, for failing to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” He also promised to keep radical Islamists “the hell out of our country.”

Trump isn’t alone in his belief that a Clinton victory would allow the Islamic State to conquer America. In his recent book, The Field of Fight, top Trump adviser retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, wrote he is “totally convinced that, without a proper sense of urgency, we will be eventually defeated, dominated, and very likely destroyed” by Islamic militants.

“[T]here’s no doubt,” Flynn added, “that they are dead set on taking us over and drinking our blood.”

Since House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin earlier this week said he would not campaign for Trump, the businessman has been on a tear that is unprecedented in modern politics — bashing his own party, the media, Democrats, the Clintons, and the American electoral voting system, all while being endorsed by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a Russian ultra-nationalist ally of President Vladimir Putin. This continued with Trump’s comments Wednesday about the Islamic State, as well as his assertion that the presidential debates are “rigged” by former President Bill Clinton.

At the same rally in Florida, Trump asked, “By the way, you know that so-called Commission on Presidential Debates?”

He answered his own question. “The head guy used to work for Bill Clinton. Did you know that? I just found that out. The head guy worked for Bill Clinton. Ay, ay, ay, what a rigged deal this is.”

“I have no respect for that group, by the way, I have none,” he continued. “It sounds good — presidential commission. Give me a break.”

Trump is referring to Mike McCurry, a former press secretary for Clinton, who is co-chairman for the commission. He serves alongside former Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf.

According to the Real Clear Politics tally of national polls, Clinton is more than 6 points up on Trump just weeks ahead of the election.

Photo credit: GERADO MORA/Getty Images

David Francis was a senior reporter for Foreign Policy, where he covered international finance. @davidcfrancis